Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner got off the floor after a mid-session crash to take pole position for tomorrow's Motorland Aragon MotoGP race but was pushed hard by team-mate Dani Pedrosa with a late lap from Ben Spies occupying the final front row slot set just before Pedrosa ran off the track trying to better Stoner's time.
Stoner ran wide and tipped off into turn 15 after being half a second up on his own pole time and was forced to go back to the garage and use his second bike. He did one sighter and then popped in a 1'48.451 which blitzed the circuit best lap of 1'48.942 set in 2008.
Marlboro Ducati's Valentino Rossi also crashed, losing the rear of his GP11.1.1 on the way out of the Bus-Stop turn and he has had to take a seventh engine so will now be forced to start from pitlane tomorrow. He will also have to wait for ten seconds after the lights go out before he can move. No-one is sure if this is better than 13th or not...
Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo is at the head of row two after hauling himself from 12th place into fifth with his last lap. Andrea Dovizioso turned the tables on San Carlo Honda's Marco Simoncelli to bag fifth.
Rossi's team-mate Nicky Hayden is in seventh but has the satellite Pacemaker Ducati of Karel Abraham right behind him in ninth with Hiro Aoyama rounding out the top ten. Randy De Puniet put in some blistering laps early on and was sitting pretty on the front row but gradually slipped down the order.
It was the same story with Alvaro Bautista who had the Rizla Suzuki has high as fourth before sliding down to 11th. Cal Crutchlow was fifth with at the half-way point but ended in 12th and 1.4s off the pace. His team-mate Colin Edwards is 15th.
Lap analysis:
It's bad news for everyone not called Casey Stoner. Even with a crash, he did seven laps in the 1'49s and two in the 1'48s from 11 full laps. By comparison, Dani Pedrosa managed one in the 1'48s and six in the 1'49s from 15 full laps.
Ben Spies was slightly erratic with only three laps in the 1'49s and the rest in the 1'50s while team-mate Jorge Lorenzo did exactly the same - three in the 1'49s and the rest in the 1'50s. With Spies' start record, you have got to put your money on the Spaniard for the final podium spot...
